Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Great Bentley

A parish church comprising a chancel and nave dating from around 1130–40, with the chancel extended eastwards in the 14th century and a west tower added in the 14th century. The north porch, also 14th to 15th century in origin, underwent heavy restoration in the 19th and 20th centuries, as did other parts of the building during the 19th and 20th centuries. The church is a complete example of 12th-century building.

The walls are constructed of regularly coursed and herringboned puddingstone with small stones and septaria. Quoins and doorways are of Barnack stone, with puddingstone dressings to the original windows. The west tower uses the same materials but incorporates bricks, volcanic and igneous stone. The roofs are of red plain tiles.

The chancel features a 19th-century east window of 3 trefoiled lights under a 2-centred head with a label and headstops. Two oval and one rectangular stone memorial plaques are attached to the wall. The north wall has a stone plaque to the east, a central 13th-century lancet, and a western early 12th-century round-headed window of puddingstone. The south wall has an eastern small 15th-century cinquefoiled light with a square head and label, and central and western 19th-century restored trefoiled lancets with traces of a 12th-century window above the western window. Between these two windows is a 19th-century 2-centred arch doorway under a square label.

The nave's north wall has a 15th-century eastern window of 3 cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery and a 2-centred head with a label and headstops. A 12th-century north doorway has plain jambs and a round-headed arch, each voussoir decorated with axe-worked diapering. The imposts have projecting volutes to their inner faces. The gabled north porch has 19th- and 20th-century low walls constructed of re-used medieval timbers. The south wall has a 15th-century eastern window of 3 cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery and a 4-centred head. Central and western walls contain 12th-century round-headed windows. Between these windows is the 12th-century south doorway with a round-headed arch covered with chevrons and a label with cable ornament. The inner arch has a segmental arch supporting a tympanum, with each voussoir carved with 2 surflowers. Each jamb has a shaft with cushion capitals carved with leaf ornament, moulded bases, and abaci continued round the plain inner order. The 12th-century door is simple and vertically boarded.

The west tower is crenellated in three stages with a band between stages. The west window, mainly of 19th- and 20th-century date, has 3 cinquefoiled lights and tracery over a 2-centred head. The north, south, and east walls of the second stage have chamfered brick 2-centred arch windows. Each wall of the bell chamber has a window of 2 cinquefoil lights with a quatrefoil in a 2-centred head, moulded labels and stops. Small square lights occur in the first and second stages of the west wall. The west doorway has double hollow-chamfered jambs carved with square flowers around the 2-centred head, with a moulded label.

The interior chancel has a 15th-century 7-cant roof with moulded wall plates. The sanctuary floor is laid with 19th-century multi-coloured tiles. To the right and left of the east window are 14th-century niches with hollow-chamfered jambs carved with flowers, ogee crocketed heads and finials, carved spandrels, side pinnacles, and crenellated heads. A 14th-century piscina has chamfered jambs and a 2-centred head, now containing a brass box with a 20th-century memorial shelf on brackets below. The north wall carries 19th-century memorials to Peter and Michala Thompson of Brook House and Frederick Heckford Thompson of Montego Bay, Jamaica. A 19th- and 20th-century round-headed chancel arch connects to the nave.

The nave has a 15th-century 7-cant arched braced roof of 4 bays with moulded wall plates and wallposts. In the splay of the eastern window on the north wall is a 4-centred arch doorway to the rood loft staircase, where the two lowest steps are cut into the sill. By the north-east wall, the remains of a 13th-century coffin lid are set into the floor, featuring a tapering lid with a roundel enclosing 4 small roundels and a roundel below. A 15th-century octagonal font has alternate panels of double trefoils and shields, with a moulded soffit carved with flowers. The stem has 2-centred arches and a moulded base. An octagonal pulpit dating from circa 1874 has panels with round-headed arches, jamb shafts with carved capitals, and a similar stem. A 15th-century piscina in the south wall has chamfered jambs and a trefoiled head. In the east wall of the west tower is a red brick window and doorway. Two chests are present: one small and oblong, the other larger with a cambered lid and iron hinges. A carved wood eagle lectern dates from the 19th or 20th century. A 2-centred tower arch of uncertain date divides the nave from the tower. The church has a 19th- and 20th-century west organ gallery.

The church is said to have 8 bells, one by Miles Gray dated 1683 and one by Henry Pleasant dated 1703.